Do you think your recruiter gave you the right or wrong impression of Military life?

He didn't mention how warm, humid, fragrant, and muddy this was in country.<div><br></div><div>He also didn't mention women would be outnumbered by men 5,000+ to one.</div><div><br></div><div>He didn't really get into the number, extent, and seriousness of wounds treated.</div><div><br></div><div>He didn't really mention how many hours straight we would triage and operate.</div><div><br></div><div>He didn't mention we would be invited to dance for many hours after our work.</div><div><br></div><div>He didn't mention the number/size of rats or the water on the floor in bunkers.</div><div><br></div><div>To the best of my recall, he didn't mention the absence of any nice warm bath.</div><div><br></div><div>I can deal with rest of his omission, but the last point was unforgivable of him.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

My recruiter was a no bullshit no fluff kind of guy. If I ran in to him again I'd thank him for being brutally honest like he was. But, I told him from day one, that it didn't matter what he told me, how good or bad it was, I was signing my name to a contract so no reason to bullshit me, just do your job and get me to basic.

I enlisted in 1978 at 17 years old.  My recruiter & my former Marine father became drinking buddies.  My father told him he would beat the crap out of him if I got screwed in any way.  My first enlistment was awesome.  I got all the schools I signed up for & a great assignment.  At the time, we had other recruiters lying like cray to meet their quotas, mine did me good however.

I don't know about USAF recruiters, but when I was an Army recruiter I used to always warn my applicants that my experiences will be different than theirs and that attitude effects how your day goes. Bottom line I told them was that the Army was still a job, some days would be great and others could be pretty bad. But in the end it will be the most satisfying experience of your life. 

My recruiter did his best toward my enlistment process.

Going in the military the first time was an uncommon journey for most my age and demographic area; Oakland, California.

My recruiter told me I could attend flight school while on my off-time during AIT at Fort Lee, Virginia.  No airfield there.  I was prior service and let him lie to me for weeks before I told him we was full of shit.  But when my son-in-law joined the recruiter didn't lie to him, but he "magically" got promoted to E3 before Basic despite the fact he didn't meet any of the requirements.   

My recruiter put in a video of the M1A1 Abrams jumping a berm, and blowing stuff up. I was sold! Originally I used to think I would've liked to know the different MOS enlistment options. Especially since I have not been on a tank since AIT and lets face it, how many tanks are in the civilian world...  I later became a recruiter. Spent 6 years and my perception changed slightly. I never "sold" the job only the service to country and the benefits thereafter. However, I would go over potential MOS's avaible and have the soon-to-be soldiers pick at least three. Since enlisting I have been able to go to 4 MOS conversion courses. So I guess it all works out in the end. Other than that I have no issues with how my recruiter handled my enlistment. He spent a lot of time showing me the in and outs of how the G.I. Bill, Hazzlewood and T.A. worked.

My recruiter was fairly straight forward. But, like a tard, I fell for the "awesome" video showing stuff blowing up and telling me what I'd be doing in the Army......yeah, that was a lie lol.  He told me a lot of good information, but nothing truly prepared me for the REAL Army. If I had known of things like Raider Focus, NTC (HANDS ACROSS THE DESERT!!), weeks without a shower, getting stuck in the 3 shop as an RTO, and basically learning how to be a glorified janitor in garrison...yeah, wish I could've seen THAT video lol. It was definitely an experience I would do all over again though if I had to go back in time, made me a far better person than I would've ever been had I not. Army/deployment hardships make the civilian "hardships" seem like mosquito bites.

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</font><p style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" class="MsoNormal"><font size="3"><font color="#000000"><font face="Calibri">Mine gave me the right impression of the Military life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>I used alternate references to confirm what he was telling me though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Trust but&nbsp;verify. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></font></font></font></p><font color="#000000" size="3" face="Times New Roman">

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I wish my recruiter had&nbsp;tried to convince me to join RA and not the Reserves, but&nbsp;I told him&nbsp;what I wanted&nbsp;and he delivered no smoke and mirrors. I would've joined RA knowing what I know now&nbsp;if I could do it all over again.